Sure, they both made some jabs. Sure, Bush stated that he thinks he is better to run the war on terror. Sure, Kerry repeated the ‘outsourcing’ nonsense regarding Tora Bora. Still, I found a ray of hope in their statements regarding the new Osama video:

“Let me make this very clear,” Bush said in Toledo, Ohio, standing next to Air Force One. “Americans will not be intimidated or influenced by an enemy of our country. I’m sure Senator Kerry agrees with this.”

And agree Kerry did:

Kerry, too, said, “My reaction is that all of us … are completely united.”

Even at the height of the silly season, we will come down on these terrorist thugs with a unified hammer. And they just don’t get it.

But I am still giddy that Yasser Arafat has one foot in the grave and the other in a banana peel. Now it is time for someone to just give him a gentle push:

Yasir Arafat will be flown to Paris and hospitalized in an attempt to cure a mysterious two-week-old ailment that has seriously weakened the 75-year-old Palestinian leader, French and Palestinian officials said here this evening.

Mr. Arafat is scheduled to fly by helicopter early Friday to Amman, Jordan, and then on to Paris, Munib al-Masri, a Palestinian businessman close to Mr. Arafat, said.

Maybe the helicopter will wreck. Although the idea of him slowly wasting away painfully is more appealing to me. Alas, he will comforted to the end by his friends: The French.

At least they are consistent- they never met a dictator they weren’t willing to coddle to the very end.

You know what, I have no respect for terrorists, and I simply refuse to fear them:

The CIA and FBI have authenticated a new al Qaeda videotape which warns of retribution for Americans electing Bush and Cheney.

“What took place on September 11 was but the opening salvo of the global war on America and that our Lord willing, the magnitude and ferocity of what is coming your way will make you forget all about September 11,” the man, whose face is covered by a headdress, warns in the video.

“After decades of American tyranny, now it’s your turn to die.”

The alarming tape which warns the next terror attack will dwarf 9/11.

The CIA and FBI late Wednesday authenticated the tape, federal sources tell DRUDGE.

ABCNEWS obtained the tape from a source in Pakistan.

“You are guilty, guilty, guilty. You’re as guilty as Bush and Cheney. You’re as guilty as Rumsfeld and Ashcroft and Powell…,” the man states.

He goes on to warn of an upcoming horror: “The streets will run with blood,” and “America will mourn in silence” because they will be unable to count the number of the dead.

“People of America, that was the verdict now for the sentencing: as participants and partners in the crimes of the regime, you too shall pay the price for the blood that has been spilled.”

Is that Karl Rove underneath the turban? This will only help Bush/Cheney.

The latest pieces of news are last week’s data dump from Paul Volcker’s U.N.-blessed investigation of Oil for Food, and U.S. weapons inspector Charles Duelfer’s report to Congress earlier this month. Everybody is still digesting these massive documents. But the most important conclusion is already clear: Saddam Hussein exploited the program to run the largest bribery scheme in the history of the world.

Yes, we mean that literally. Total turnover between 1996 and 2003 was about $97 billion, or $64.2 billion in oil sales and $32.9 billion worth of food and other “humanitarian” goods. Crucially, Saddam was able to manipulate the program largely because U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan–who was given more or less complete discretion to design Oil for Food by the Security Council resolution that created it–allowed him to pick and choose the buyers of his oil and the sellers of the humanitarian goods.

This meant the Iraq dictator could reward his friends and political allies with oil at below market prices and goods contracts at inflated ones. In the middle of the program, he also started demanding kickbacks on the contracts to add to the stream of unmonitored revenue he was already getting from oil smuggling.

These are the respective ‘allies’ whose asses John Kerry desires to kiss.